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Summary of the impact

Research work into the development and transference of methods for
climate readiness and
resilience by Allen et al has created impacts at every stage of the
planning process. In major cities
of the Global South, such as Dhaka and Maputo, this research has made
visible the material
practices adopted by ordinary citizens to cope with climate variability,
and has provided a
systematic evaluation for policymakers and funders of strategies for
proofing cities at scale. In turn
it has facilitated new approaches to risk and vulnerability assessment —
for instance, by integrating
new perspectives into Maputo city planning, supporting methodological
approaches to projects by
Oxfam, and helping to shape policy tools and funding with organisations
such as the Department
for International Development (DFID).

Underpinning research

Floods, drought, unusually high temperatures and other shocks are
projected to increase around
the world due to climate change. Action-research by the Development
Planning Unit (DPU) in the
UCL Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment has been exploring the
intersection of urbanisation
and climate change, with a focus on the generation and distribution of
risks, vulnerabilities, and
opportunities in the urban Global South. It examines how different
epistemic communities frame
these challenges, and traces the planned responses and everyday practices
that seek to build
more resilient cities. In particular, the DPU research has highlighted the
importance of moving
beyond traditional governmental and developmental responses related to the
management and
mitigation of climate change (e.g. reducing greenhouse gas emissions,
responding to natural
disasters), to exploring how cities can be better adapted to adjust to the
changing climate — i.e.
urban planning that responds to conditions of rising sea levels, floods,
or climate variability [a, c].

One strand of DPU research examines the practices of ordinary citizens in
the making of
environmentally just and resilient urban transitions. In the project on Adaptation
to Climate Change
in Cities (2008-10), Dr Cassidy Johnson (Lecturer during the period
of research) and Dr Adriana
Allen (Senior Lecturer) demonstrated how people living in informal
settlements in Dhaka,
Bangladesh adapt to climate variability and cope with changing
environments. The key innovation
in this work was the proposal that significant lessons can be drawn from
examining how the urban
poor are already managing conditions of increased vulnerability by drawing
on their social, political
and knowhow capital, and revealing how these strategies can be scaled up
and supported at the
policy level [e]. Similarly, in A
Public-Private-People-Partnership for Climate Compatible
Development in Maputo (2013), Dr Vanesa Castán Broto (Lecturer)
emphasises the voices of
ordinary citizens, experimenting with different forms of dialogue in
planning to support meaningful
resident participation in the design of policy and planned responses at
the local, national and
international levels [d]. In particular, this project seeks to
engage stakeholders who are traditionally
excluded from the official planning process, including ordinary residents
and informal traders.

The second strand of DPU research looks specifically at the future of
cities by focusing on the
production and regulation of urban risks and vulnerabilities associated
with climate change,
carbonisation and `lock-in' energy systems, and the erosion of vital
ecosystems services. Future-Proofing
Cities, as funded by the Department for International Development
(DFID) and led by
Atkins UK, in partnership with the DPU (Allen, Castán Broto; and Caren
Levy, Senior Lecturer)
examined the environmental risks faced across 129 cities in 20 developing
countries. They
developed five urban `typologies' or trajectories to support the design of
interventions suited to
specific environmental conditions and city types. These trajectories
comprise: energy intensive
cities with significant carbon footprints, cities affected by major
climate hazards, cities with risks to
regional support systems (water and food), cities facing multiple risks
and cities with a low current
risk profile. Over 100 policy options for future-proofing were scrutinised
against their relevance to
different urban trajectories of change, different levels of vulnerability,
as well as their capacity to
deliver integrated social, environmental and economic benefits and the
capacities required for their
successful implementation (governance, planning, finance and delivery
requirements). The
research reveals that the possibilities of cities to be resilient to
multiple environmental risks are not
just determined by their past trajectories, current vulnerabilities and
future risks — but can be
activated through sensitive diagnosis and wise interventions [b].
The DPU team provided strategic
guidance on the development of the analytical framework, and wrote up the
case studies on these
typologies in Bangkok, Maputo, Bangalore, Karachi and Nairobi. This
research provided a nuanced
framework to assess not only the multiple environmental risks faced by
cities in the developing
world but also the different degrees of vulnerability affecting their
citizens.

- Castán Broto, V. (PI), Development of a `Public Private People
Partnership' for climate
compatible development in Maputo, Mozambique, Climate and
Development Knowledge
Network/FUNAB, January 2012 — July 2013 (£120,000). This grant led to
output [d] above.

Details of the impact

The DPU's research has contributed to building climate preparedness and
resilience in the urban
Global South by enhancing existing strategies adopted by affected
communities, and introducing
new methods for socio-technological structures to deal with cumulative and
sudden shocks. The
transfer of specialist knowledge holds impacts for policy-makers in
Bangladesh, Mozambique, and
India, within aid organisations (e.g. DFID and Oxfam), and for urban
planners and residents of
vulnerable cities. Impacts range from enhancing citizens' voices in local
governance structures and
supporting transparent decision-making to guiding aid policy and
governmental interventions, and
aiding urban planners through policy tools to plan for more resilient
cities. Perhaps most
significantly, DPU research contributed to culture shifts in development
and donor organisations
around the world, reinforcing changes in fundamental approaches to climate
change resilience.

At the local government level in the largest cities in countries like
Bangladesh and Mozambique,
research was used to build resilience through policy advice to
governmental programmes. Moving
from mitigation to adaptation is critical in Bangladesh, frequently
affected by the effects of climate
variability and climate change. Dhaka has experienced nine major floods in
the last 55 years,
disproportionally affecting the 3.4 million vulnerable urban poor with
limited/no access to services.
The act of documenting community responses to climate variability [e]
facilitated the development
of strategies that moved from climate risk mitigation to planned
adaptation, via policy and financial
decisions seeking to address climate impacts before or soon after they
were manifest. Research
recommendations by DPU supported policy and planning for the development
of pro-poor land-use
planning and tenure security options within Dhaka's local government, and
on the design of
buildings and infrastructure to reduce climate change risks. This dialogue
was facilitated through
several focus group discussions and a multi-stakeholder workshop in August
2009, which had 46
participants, including community members, governmental actors and
representatives from
organisations working on urban poverty, climate change and urban planning
issues in Bangladesh.
Three lines of action were identified: access to basic urban services;
land-use planning and the
built environment; and disaster management strategies. The ongoing actions
by municipalities and
the coping strategies of the urban poor were mapped to identify synergies
and generate
recommendations for future action. The resulting strategies were
consolidated at the multi-stakeholder
workshop and endorsed in the plans and programmes of governmental agencies
[1].

Likewise, in Maputo, an innovative participatory research process
encouraged working
partnerships between diverse actors with the aim of bridging the gap
between policy rhetoric and
action. This city of 1 million inhabitants (half below the poverty line)
is subject to frequent flooding
and vulnerable to rising sea levels. Communities described the drainage
faults associated with
uncontrolled waste disposal as the main factor influencing vulnerabilities
to climate change in the
research area, Chamanculo C district. Seeking to address this challenge,
in partnership with the
National Fund for the Environment of Mozambique (FUNAB), Reading
University and York
University, DPU research supported networking in 2012-13 between
residents, private sector
actors, and government authorities, including the Ministry for
Coordination of Environmental Affairs
(MICOA), the National Disaster Management Institute (INGC), and Maputo
Municipality.

The first step involved the development of a process of community
organisation that led to the
constitution of a local planning committee on climate change (CPC). These
CPC members
represent different interest groups rarely represented in such
negotiations, such as the elderly,
youth, housewives, traders and salaried workers. The CPC has five
community members elected
by local residents, who met weekly from April to July 2012. They held
meetings with experts and
institutions, working independently of the DPU/FUNAB project team to
develop and implement a
Local Action Plan for Climate Compatible Development with the municipal
government [2]. While
this research engaged actors already concerned with climate change (MICOA;
INGC), through the
CPC it also brought climate change to urban governance bodies where it
previously did not exist.

Real changes in the lives of Maputo residents were already underway
towards the end of the
impact period. The CPC had begun negotiating the implementation of the
strategies emerging from
its dialogues within the informal settlement of Chamanculo C. These
included new provisions for
recycling and composting centres, and the establishment of waste
collection points to alleviate the
impacts of flooding on blocked drainage. To achieve their goals, the CPC
established links with
local associations, private operators and NGOs involved in waste
management. Out of the Local
Action Plan, drawn up in July 2013, the CPC has also begun to develop an
environmental
education programme with the Maputo University Eduardo Mondlane for better
training in climate
change issues, correct usage of water, and treatment of domestic waste,
and it used this
educational process to extend networks within and between communities, and
to mobilise
residents for the regular cleaning and maintenance of drainage channels [2;
p.9]. In a city whose
fast and unregulated growth had outstripped the provision of basic
services, particularly in the
context of a changing climate, this community-led programme demonstrated
to local policy-makers
that residents — even the relatively uneducated — can handle climate
information if there is an entry
point that relates such information to their own experience, such as
flooding [3]. Policy makers
subsequently have no vowed to extend this programme to other
neighbourhoods.

Working at the NGO level, DPU researchers are also closely involved in
the design and
operationalisation of new approaches to the study of climate change
resilience in Latin America. In
2012—13, the DPU advised Oxfam's Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) office
on managing risk
and working with vulnerability in relation to disaster risk reduction. Dr
Camillo Boano (Senior
Lecturer) and Dr Alexandre Apsan Frediani (Lecturer) facilitated a
three-day workshop in 2012 with
government officials, civil society organisations, and Oxfam officers from
La Paz, Guatemala and
the regional office in Mexico City. This contributed to ongoing action
within Oxfam's LAC office in
re-shaping their urban strategies in relation to risk and vulnerability
reduction, shifting again from
mitigation strategies to addressing the actual root causes of risk
production.

For example, this collaboration has redefined the initial terms of
reference of a project undertaken
in La Paz and Guatemala City away from more traditional reactive
mitigation strategies towards the
exploration of local and innovative adaptation plans [4]. This was
demonstrated in the resulting
report, Exploring Oxfam's room for manoeuvre to address the production
of urban risk, which
sought to highlight the social drivers of risk in La Paz and Guatemala
City [5; especially pp. 6, 10,
22]. In particular, DPU research has underpinned recommendations for
further action, including
expanding the knowledge base on intra-community perceptions of risk
(disaggregating community
experiences by gender, disability, tenure status, etc.), as well as
redefining the understanding of
urban risk as a social and political product; and collapsing the divide
between urban planning and
the field of disaster risk reduction, which as noted has tended to be more
reactive [5; pp. 51, 53].

The Future-Proofing Cities project [b] also spurred
international donors to reassess their aid
priorities to support effective local responses that could support
resilient urban development. The
project recommendations were adopted by DFID in 2012 as a diagnostic tool
to guide its climate-change
portfolio and mechanisms for funding, resource, and project
allocation throughout Asia,
Latin America, and Africa [6]. The reach of this impact on
international debates is demonstrated by
the fact that the Future-Proofing Cities website has received over
300,000 hits since December
2012 and the report was downloaded over 2,000 times by users in multiple
countries and
organisations. This included municipal governments, leading developers and
architects (e.g.
Balfour), strategy consultants, technology providers (e.g. Siemens),
funding institutions, and water
and energy companies in the Global South. It also attracted the attention
and endorsement of
organisations such as the World Bank [7], Rockefeller Foundation,
and Cities Alliances [6].

Since March 2013, the same model has been applied in two Indian cities:
Bangalore and Madurai,
implemented through Future-Proofing Indian Cities with £450,000
committed by the Climate and
Development Knowledge Network (partially funded by DFID) [8]. This
is using the Future-Proofing
Cities framework to undertake a participatory action planning
process to develop urban risk
diagnostics and action plans for Bangalore and Madurai. The diagnostic
stage was completed in
July 2013 and informed discussions with the state and municipal
governments, service utilities and
civic society organisations. Stakeholders in both cities prioritised a
focus on the rehabilitation of
infrastructure to develop future proofing strategies, which will inform
the subsequent stages of the
programme. In Madurai, this was endorsed at a city-wide consultation in
September 2013
organised by Development of Humane Action (DHAN) Foundation — now a
partner in the project — which
was attended by over 30 officials from the municipal corporation, plus
other representatives
from the City Technical Advisory Group (CTAG) and City Volunteer Technical
Corps (CVTC).

Sources to corroborate the impact

[1] Adaptation to Climate Change in Cities: Looking at Dhaka from
the Built-Environment
Perspective. Workshop Report. 25 August 2009 [Available on
request]

[7] Future-Proofing Cities report as featured on the World Bank's
headline page on urban
resilience [http://go.worldbank.org/B9J3LDIZZ0],
plus also data from statistical report about traffic
on the Future-Proofing Cities website [Available on request]